Races
There are seven playable races in Leylines, plus an eigth "alliance" race that combines abilities of any other two races to create a unique experience for each combination. Humans: The noble humans take great pride in their code of chivalry and their scholastic education, making them more innovating and adaptive than any other race. The narrator for the humans is Devon Proudborne, a former pikeman captain. Strengths: Humans specialize in chivalry and overland abilities. Units with the cavalry ability can cross the map extremely fast, especially maps with a lot of flat terrain. Overland attacks require special care to utilize, but can be devastating when applied to large enemy armies or well-defended cities. Note that while ballistae are cumbersome to move around, taking them aboard ships is a potent strategy on island maps. Humans are also excellent researchers and agriculture is one of the best ways to boost city growth. They have a good magesight unit in their ranks and one of the fastest (and therefore most effective) units for detection of hidden enemies. The mounted scout and ordinary scout provide an excellent combination to quickly scout the map and grab resources. Humans have two units available to bless their armies. It is recommended to add a priest or paladin to any offensive army, especially in the mid to late game. Priests are probably the most effective weapon against undead in the game. Weaknesses: Most races have units with very effective anti-cavalry abilities, such as Break Charge. This is probably the main weakness of the Humans. Accordingly, when playing against them it is usually a good idea to start producing anti-cavalry. Humans have only one unit with a strong magical attack (the very expensive warlock), which makes them somewhat less versatile than most other races. Human cities tend to be low on mana production, even though agriculture can in theory be used to create very impressive mana-producing cities. Elves: In their long lives, most elves put a passionate dedication to the perfecting of a form of art, be it in magic, singing, studying nature, or swordmanship. The narrator for the elves is Silthar Moonleaf, a High Enchantress who can be recruited as a hero in the game. Strengths: Elves have an interesting array of offensive units. Marksmen are one of the best shooters in the game and become especially deadly when boosted with Might of Giants. Bladesingers are a great melee unit and very fast, especially in forests. The Enchantress and the Phantom add strong magical attacks. Envoys grant elves the option to bribe enemy units, which can be a nasty surprise. When the player has chosen to worship Sartho, envoys can even be the main attack force. When the opponent is leaving some of his cities weakly defended, Astral Rangers can launch a surprise attack. Last but not least, elves have access to the only unit in the game with built-in invisibility and can even turn an entire city invisible. Invisibility is generally more rare than hiding and harder to detect. All in all, the elves have lots of different strategic options available, which is their main strength. Elves also excell at producing mana. An elven city can get a bonus of up to +4 to mana, with the first +2 being very easy to get. One building deserving special attention is the planar gate. On large maps, transportation of troops to the frontlines is a key factor. The planar gate is one of the most potent ways to deal with this problem. Weaknesses: The elven buildings are quite costly in terms of work. Add that elves have only one building granting a +1 bonus to work, which is quite expensive itself and the problem becomes clear. Building an elven empire takes time, making them vulnerable to rush attacks, even in the mid-game. Elves are ok, but not great at scouting the map or early resource grabbing. The dedicated scouting unit, the raven, can't be built from the start, is too fragile to cross deserts and will lose practically any battle. Early in the game, an elven leader may prefer to scout with Vigilantes instead. Later on, Stargazers can help in this area. Their ability to detect hidden enemy scouts is quite useful. Elves can only improve terrain by planting forests, which is often not very practical since it doesn't boost growth. However, it can still be worth considering as it can boost work. When playing against elves, magesight is very handy to have, since the elves can build invisible roads, units and even cities. Theria: A group of deformed people and lycanthropes that are scorned by other races, these outcasts try their best to live in peace but are seldom understood. The narrator for the Thereia is Song of Eighteen Raindrops, a Rootless One who can be recruited as a hero in the game. Strengths: The Theria are very much focused on the long game, perhaps more so than any other race. One of their main strengths is city growth. They have several buildings granting a bonus to growth and their settler unit, the Rootless One, can increase the population of an existing city, which is a unique and very interesting ability. The Floral Clock can improve the long-term potential of their cities even further, by slowly improving terrain. Their units are also strongly focused on a long-term strategy. The Theria have some of the most impressive high-level troops out of all races, even though these are accordingly expensive. The Theria have access to several unique options. They can build Shapeshifters, which can be used to copy enemy units. This could potentially allow them access to strategies and options they normally wouldn't have. Once a single unit has been copied, that copy can in turn be copied, which could potentially be used to start producing top of the line foreign units, e.g. paladins. Other nice options include a flying ship for quick transport and even a unit capable of stealing the enemy map. Weaknesses: The foremost weakness of the Theria lies in the early game. The Theria lack cheap scouts, have few options for early defense and practically no early offense. Other than that, they have trouble detecting hidden units (or cities). The most practical way for the Theria to gain detection is to hire a hero. Finally, the Theria are not particularly good at spell research. S'Sirthe: As nomadic tribes, these lizardmen are often wrongly taken for feral barbarians by those who fail to see their spiritual art and their simple yet harmonious lifestyle. The narrator for the S'Sirthe is Gleam-Like-Fish, a Relentless. Strengths: The S'Sirthe are one of the most potent races when it comes to setting up a rush attack. With their braves and trailblazers they have an easy time scouting the map and grabbing lots of resources. Next, they can quickly overrun the enemy with Javelineers and Locust Swarms. But they also have some nifty tricks up their sleeve for the mid to late game. For example, they have the unique ability of hiding their entire cities. The S'Sirthe also have a nice selection of utility units. The Zaratan is an amphibious ship, capable of moving over both water and flat land (but not through woods or hills). This is interesting in combination with the Shambling Mound, which is very strong but nearly immobile. S'Sirthe can also bless their units and hide them in forests, while they also have some nice weapons against undead available. They can turn terrain into swamp as well, which is usually not the most practical way of improving terrain but can sometimes be useful to boost mana production. Weaknesses: If the S'Sirthe can be stopped in the early game, they might run out of steam. Their major weakness in the mid to late game is in magical attacks. None of their units has a great resistance, making them vulnerable. This is especially dangerous when the enemy has the Jinx spell. Another factor that hurts them in the long run is that they can't do much to boost city growth. The S'Sirthe may at first sight look like they are especially good on island maps with lots of water, but actually this is where they are weakest, since they can't rush the enemy when they are isolated on an island. Dwarves: Hard workers, fearless soldiers, and unsurpassed metalsmiths, the dwarves have a penchant for conservatism and prefer a strictly regulated society. The narrator for the dwarves is Arthog Forgersson, a Runecaster. Strengths: The dwarves are mighty and tough. Their high-level units are practically unmatched in raw power. The Slayer, for example, is one of the best all-round melee units and has exorcism to enhance his might even further. The War Machine, while expensive, is even mightier in raw melee power, though it lacks resistance. The Firewalker has absolutely unmatched resistance and is the nightmare of anyone relying on magical attacks. The dwarves also excel at detecting units that are hidden or invisible, since the Slayer comes with built-in magesight. Regarding cities, the dwarves are great workers, with lots of bonuses to work and caravans, allowing cities to add production to other cities. This is especially potent in combination with miner units, which can greatly enhance gold production. A handy trick with Miners is to camp them in a fortress on a river. Another strength of the dwarves is in enhancing city defense. A fully fortified dwarf town is notoriously hard to capture, at least without siegecraft. This is especially true when worshipping Altharn. One strategy which can pay when playing dwarf, more than with any other race, is to build roads and cities into the direction of the enemy (see weaknesses). The dwarves also benefit greatly from ethereal roads. The dwarves are the best choice to attempt a monolith victory. Weaknesses: The main and obvious weakness is that most of their units are dependent, which means they need support units to even survive when travelling. If the enemy manages to kill the support units, the rest of the army dies from starvation. This makes them one of the weakest races when it comes to offense, even though they have the strongest defense. One special pitfall to be aware of is that enemy cities that have just been captured and are still in disorder do not supply your units! Common sense does help: dwarves should travel in large groups to protect the caravans and take along more than one caravan. When that doesn't help, dwarf players could consider building roads (or even cities) into the direction of the enemy. Dwarves are also the worst out of all races at producing mana, even though they can still boost mana by +2. Unlike the humans, they can't compensate for it with agriculture. Goblins: A race of scavengers and thieves, the goblins have gotten away with leeching off the lands and cities of others without bothering to erect a civilization of their own. The narrator for the goblins is Threb Shadowhand, first Stalker. The Regency: These degenerates rely on slaves for menial chores and undead armies for protection, and spend their time with political subterfuge and decadent festivities. The narrator for the Regency is Regulus Arthinum IV, an elder Necromancer. Strengths: Regency is a race themed about being evil (and lazy). They can convert enemy cities into slaves, which is great in cases where you wanted to destroy the city anyway, if not so great if you were trying to conquer it. For combat they rely heavily on undead units. Their top-end units, the daemon and the liche, are impressive monsters (with a monstrous upkeep, too). The regency possess unique abilities that enhance the abilities of undead further. Necromancers are able to heal undead and Spectres provide the undead equivalent of a blessing. Keep in mind that this also works on summoned undead, such as Golems, Nightmares and Archons. If this is not evil enough for you, have a look at the Assassin, capable of killing mighty foes as an overland ability. This works especially great against heroes. Keep in mind, however, that it doesn't work on bulky units (such as dragons). A very sneaky option is to sabotage enemy cities. This will disrupt the production of the city for one turn. When used simultaneously on the most important enemy gold and mana producing cities, it could have severe consequences, such as negative mana feedback and buildings collapsing for lack of maintainance. Another key strategic unit is the acolyte, which can sacrifice living units for instant mana. The most logical sacrifice is the phalanx, since the amount of mana gained is proportional to production cost. The ability to quickcast negative spells on enemy units can be a great help. The catapult adds the possibility of dealing overland damage. Even though the saboteur grants access to siegecraft, taking along a catapult is arguably even better, since it forces the enemy to leave their city and attack you. One spell that deserves special mention for the Regency is Jinx. Many Regency units have magical attacks. These are greatly enhanced after reducing enemy resistance by three points. Weaknesses: Relying on undead troops has its drawbacks. First of all, travelling the map becomes harder since they can't cross rivers, except by building a bridge (road). Worse yet, most races have special anti-undead units, often highly effective. And what makes the Regency even less flexible, is that almost all of their main combat units (daemon, wraith and liche) rely on non-physical attacks. This makes units with high resistance, such as Firewalkers, hard to deal with. If the enemy starts building an army of units such as priests, most players would honestly be at a loss what to do. Assassinating them all is not a serious option, Ornithopters are slightly too weak to consider as a main attack force, while Catapults can't safely approach the enemy without the protection of strong (undead) armies. The list doesn't stop there. The Regency have no cheap scout unit. Ornithopters and to a lesser degree Mountaineers are reasonably good at reconnaissance but too expensive to build in large numbers. However, if your enemy is reckless enough to let his scouts approach your ghouls, you can still gain a couple of cheap scouts. Further, the much-needed backup units (Necromancer and Spectre) are both quite slow, and the Regency have no special methods of compensating for this low speed. Altogether, Regency is a challenging race to play with, though it can certainly be lots of fun. Alliance: You can create an alliance of any two races and have them face the world together, although neither race will be willing to contribute its most guarded secrets. The Alliance has no narrator. Category:Races Category:General